Feeble

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: fee=ble

CIDE DICTIONARY

Feeble, a. [OE. feble, OF. feble, flebe, floibe, floible, foible, F. faible, L. flebilis to be wept over, lamentable, wretched, fr. flere to weep. Cf. Foible.].

•  Deficient in physical strength; weak; infirm; debilitated.  [1913 Webster]

  "Carried all the feeble of them upon asses."  [1913 Webster]
•  Wanting force, vigor, or efficiency in action or expression; not full, loud, bright, strong, rapid, etc.; faint; as, a feeble color; feeble motion.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

Feeble, v. t. 

 To make feble; to enfeeble.  [1913 Webster]
"Shall that victorious hand be feebled here?"  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Feeble, adj.
1 weak, infirm.
2 lacking energy, force, or effectiveness.
3 dim, indistinct.
4 deficient in character or intelligence.

Derivative

feebleness n. feeblish adj. feebly adv.

Etymology

ME f. AF & OF feble, fieble, fleible f. L flebilis lamentable f. flere weep

THESAURUS

Feeble

abulic, afraid, aged, ailing, anemic, anile, asthenic, backward, barely audible, blear, bleared, bleary, bloodless, blurred, blurry, cachectic, chicken, confused, cowardly, crabbed, dark, debilitated, decrepit, decrescendo, delicate, dim, dim-witted, distant, dizzy, doddered, doddering, doddery, drained, drooping, droopy, dull, effete, emasculated, enervated, enfeebled, etiolated, exhausted, failing, faint, faint-voiced, fainthearted, faintish, feckless, feebleminded, filmy, flabby, flaccid, flimsy, floppy, foggy, forceless, fossilized, fragile, frail, fuzzy, gentle, gerontal, gerontic, gone, gutless, half-baked, half-heard, half-seen, half-visible, half-witted, hazy, healthless, helpless, ill-defined, imbecile, imperceptible, impotent, impuissant, in poor health, inadequate, inconclusive, inconspicuous, indefinite, indistinct, indistinguishable, ineffective, ineffectual, infirm, insignificant, insubstantial, insufficient, invalid, invertebrate, lame, languid, languishing, languorous, limber, limp, listless, low, low-profile, lustless, marrowless, merely glimpsed, misty, moribund, moronic, mossbacked, moth-eaten, mummylike, murmured, namby-pamby, nerveless, obscure, out of focus, pale, palsied, paltry, papery-skinned, peaked, peaky, pianissimo, piano, pithless, pliable, pooped, poor, powerless, puny, ravaged with age, reduced, reduced in health, rickety, rubbery, run to seed, run-down, rusty, sapless, scarcely heard, semivisible, senile, shadowy, shaky, shoddy, shriveled, sickly, simpleminded, sinewless, slack, slight, slow, slow-witted, soft, soft-sounding, soft-voiced, spineless, spiritless, strengthless, stricken in years, subaudible, subdued, thin, timeworn, tottering, tottery, unavailing, uncertain, unclear, unconvincing, undefined, unhardened, unhealthy, unmanned, unnerved, unplain, unproved, unrecognizable, unrigorous, unsatisfactory, unsound, unstrung, unsubstantial, unsustained, vague, valetudinarian, valetudinary, weak, weak-kneed, weak-minded, weak-voiced, weak-willed, weakened, weakly, wet, whispered, wishy-washy, with low resistance, withered, wizened, woozy

ROGET THESAURUS

Feeble

Feebleness

N feebleness, feeble, bald, tame, meager, jejune, vapid, bland, trashy, lukewarm, cold, frigid, poor, dull, dry, languid, colorless, enervated, proposing, prosy, prosaic, unvaried, monotonous, weak, washy, wishy- washy, sketchy, slight, careless, slovenly, loose, lax (negligent), slipshod, slipslop, inexact, puerile, childish, flatulent, rambling.

Weakness

N weakness, debility, atony, relaxation, languor, enervation, impotence, infirmity, effeminacy, feminality, fragility, flaccidity, inactivity, anaemia, bloodlessness, deficiency of blood, poverty of blood, declension of strength, loss of strength, failure of strength, delicacy, invalidation, decrepitude, asthenia, adynamy, cachexy, cachexia, sprain, strain, reed, thread, rope of sand, house of cards, softling, weakling, infant, youth, weak, feeble, debile, impotent, relaxed, unnerved sapless, strengthless, powerless, weakly, unstrung, flaccid, adynamic, asthenic, nervous, soft, effeminate, feminate, womanly, frail, fragile, shattery, flimsy, unsubstantial, insubstantial, gimcrack, gingerbread, rickety, creaky, creaking, cranky, craichy, drooping, tottering, broken, lame, withered, shattered, shaken, crazy, shaky, palsied, decrepit, languid, poor, infirm, faint, faintish, sickly, dull, slack, evanid, spent, short-winded, effete, weather-beaten, decayed, rotten, worn, seedy, languishing, wasted, washy, laid low, pulled down, the worse for wear, unstrengthened, unsupported, unaided, unassisted, aidless, defenseless, cantilevered (support), on its last legs, weak as a child, weak as a baby, weak as a chicken, weak as a cat, weak as a rat, weak as water, weak as water gruel, weak as gingerbread, weak as milk and water, colorless, non sum qualis eram.

& Sophistry

N intuition, instinct, association, hunch, gut feeling, presentiment, premonition, rule of thumb, superstition, astrology, faith (supposition), sophistry, paralogy, perversion, casuistry, jesuitry, equivocation, evasion, chicane, chicanery, quiddet, quiddity, mystification, special pleading, speciousness, nonsense, word sense, tongue sense, false reasoning, vicious reasoning, circular reasoning, petitio principii, ignoratio elenchi, post hoc ergo propter hoc, non sequitur, ignotum per ignotius, misjudgment, false teaching, sophism, solecism, paralogism, quibble, quirk, elenchus, elench, fallacy, quodlibet, subterfuge, subtlety, quillet, inconsistency, antilogy, a delusion, a mockery, and a snare, claptrap, cant, mere words, lame and impotent conclusion, meshes of sophistry, cobwebs of sophistry, flaw in an argument, weak point, bad case, overrefinement, hairsplitting, intuitive, instinctive, impulsive, independent of reason, anterior to reason, gratuitous, hazarded, unconnected, unreasonable, illogical, false, unsound, invalid, unwarranted, not following, inconsequent, inconsequential, inconsistent, absonous, absonant, unscientific, untenable, inconclusive, incorrect, fallacious, fallible, groundless, unproved, non sequitur, it does not follow, deceptive, sophistical, jesuitical, illusive, illusory, specious, hollow, plausible, ad captandum, evasive, irrelevant, weak, feeble, poor, flimsy, loose, vague, irrational, nonsensical, foolish, frivolous, pettifogging, quibbling, finespun, overrefined, at the end of one's tether, au bout de son latin, intuitively, by intuition, illogically, non constat, that goes for nothing.